Friday, 22 July 2016

Please welcome our guest designer this month, Beverley Cunningham from New Zealandwith her delightful interpretation of our artwork for July.

I was inspired to create a layout from the tree and fence as well as the country theme from the art prompt. The layout is of my daughter feeding goats at a public farmyard here in New Zealand. Just after these photos were taken the white goat head butted her so she refused to go back to feed them anymore!

I have used Kaisercraft papers and a gorgeous chippy fence from Dusty attic painted with distress paints. My layout is then finished off using Petaloo flowers, studio calico hearts, American Crafts thicker Alphas and some Prima wooden leaves.

Hi I am Beverley Cunningham and I live in beautiful New
Zealand right near beaches and a national park - sometimes it is hard to think I
live in the biggest city in New Zealand. I have three children who are my main
inspiration for my layouts.

I started scrapbooking ten years ago after
my sister bought me a scrapbooking kit for my birthday. That kit became a crop
bag,then a whole cupboard, then a whole scrap room to now an even bigger area in
my garage! It did not help my obsession for scrapbooking that I worked and
taught at a scrapbook store for four years. Since the store closed down I have
gone back to my old line of work and have less time to scrapbook and it has
become a very part time hobby which I still thoroughly enjoy.

I have
met a whole lot of amazing fellow scrapbookers from New Zealand and abroad and
gained heaps of confidence through this hobby. I love
mixed media and embellishments - some of my layouts have so many products on but
I have managed to incorporate more white space over the last few years.

I
am honoured to be a guest designer and you can find more of my creations on my
blog here:

Friday, 15 July 2016

This month we are celebrating the country with this delightful painting by Elioth Gruner called Spring Frost Study.

The CRITERIA is a COUNTRY / RURAL theme

HELENE

My rural theme is about camping in a forest.

MARY

This is a photo I took driving into work a couple of weeks ago. The cows in the fog.

ANGELIKA

I was inspired by the muted colours, the horizontal lines, and the farm animal theme. I also took inspiration from the splotchy cows to make a lot of splotches on my layout

KAREN

My inspiration is just everything from outside.AN'JENIC

My inspiration came from the cows and the outdoor background.

TONE

This photo is from a forest in Norway. Some friends of ours rented this little cabin for several years and we went to visit them

JANE

I was inspired by both the colours in the artwork and the theme of cows and knew immediately which photos I would use for this challenge :)

Now it is your turn, we'd love to see your own interpretation ...

Remember we happily accept all forms of paper crafting for your entry including digital and encourage international submissions. All we ask is that you create something new for our challenge and only combine your entry with a sketch challenge. We offer two prizes determined by team vote and one other prize selected purely by random draw - so anyone can be a winner regardless of style or level of experience. You have until 11.55pm on the last day of the month to submit your entry.

Please pop back on the 22nd when we introduce you to our July Guest Designer.

Friday, 8 July 2016

I will be announcing our June winners shortly but first I would like to introduce you to our July edition of Tips, Tricks and Techniques brought to you by team member Tracey Henly.

Mixed Media Background with Tracey Henly

I always start with a 12 x 12 sheet of chipboard.

Then using matt gel or your favourite glue add some texture to the background with ribbons and mesh. Remember with this technique it does not matter what the original colour of any of your pieces are as we are going to change it.

I then added more texture with a template and some whipped spackle and then let it dry.

Once this is dry add some chipboard, metal charms or any accent that compliments your layout. I use helma 450 for my glue of choice.

Once everything is dry paint white gesso over everything and let it dry.

With this layout I used Lindys stamp gang sprays and some of he new prima alchelmy acrylic paints.

I put the prima flowers on last as they were really beautiful as they were, so I didn't need to paint them to match the layout. I actually chose my colours to compliment the flowers.

thanks for looking

Tracey

and now onto our June winners .....

We were working with this amazing artwork by Anna Collinscalled Top Hat Tiger.

Could the winners please contact me on jjjustjane@bigpond.com with their postal details. You have until the announcement of the winners for next month to do so.Don't forget to grab our winners badge from the sidebar.

OurCreative Team highlightfrom last month is Angelika. She will receive a little surprise something from me.

Don't forget to enter this month's ARTastic challenge. All the details are in the left sidebar. Remember you have until the end of the month to submit your entry.

Friday, 1 July 2016

My goodness, July has rolled in. It's mid winter and I'm feeling the cold where I live. Good weather for crafting I always say.

This month we are celebrating the country with this delightful painting by Elioth Gruner called Spring Frost Study.

The CRITERIA is a COUNTRY / RURAL theme

Don't overthink this one - it can be really simple. Try doing a layout of somewhere rural you have visited or admired - it doesn't have to be remote just not a built-up area so think open space. Have you taken the kids to the Royal Easter show and toured the rural exhibits, maybe visited a petting zoo at a local shopping centre during school holidays or fed ducks at the park. Maybe you live in a country location and only need to step out your backdoor to find some rural vistas.

A little about Elioth GrunerElioth Gruner was born in New Zealand in 1882 and arrived in Australia with his parents when he was still a baby. He began art lessons at the age of 12 and rose to become one of the most popular landscape artists of his day. He was awarded the Wynne Prize for landscape no fewer than seven times between 1916 and 1937, including for some of his Murrumbidgee paintings.

And now some inspiration from the first of our team ...

LIZZY

I went out of the box on this one & 'upcycled' an old canvas as a sort of clipboard for my scenery & flower photos from our recent UK trip.

ELAINE

For this challenge I used the rural criteria and picked up colours from my daughter's clothing. I centred the photo as the cows are in the centre of the inspiration piece, added a watercolour background, and used a journaling card as part of my embellishments.

MARIA

I was inspired by farm animals from the painting. I found a photo of my son seeing a goat the first time in his life! I named it "The First Encounter". The photo is accompanied by a paper with a botanic theme and a journaling on a tag.

TRACEY

Photo supplied by a scrapping sister of her husband and son on their cotton farm. Love this photo.

SUE

Our early morning rural view taken from our deck on the last day of Autumn.

KAT

I was inspired by the farm setting, animals, fences and colours.

ANNA

Our sweet pretty newborn calves. Happy times and the real life at the country. My paper choices also are inspired of the country side.

Over to you ......

Please upload the DIRECT link to your actual entry with the link tool on the LEFT by 11.55pm on July 31st, 2016. We'd love to see yournewpaper, digital, mixed media or off the page entries. Why not try doing a pocket page spread? Please no back-dated submissions.

Please note:- You may combine our challenge with a sketch challenge only - no other combining will be accepted. Please include our inspirational picture and challenge details on your blog post as well as provide a link back to us at ARTastic ... and don't forget to tell us how you were inspired by our challenge. You may enter more than once in any month as long as each submission is with a different creation. International entries are very welcome.

Please call past on the 8th for our announcement of the June winners and our ARTastic 3T's - Tips, Tricks and Techniques for July.

February random draw prize

2nd random draw prize if more than 8 entries

January inspiration is by Chris Vella called Joy.

JANUARY entries ...

January Prize

JAN second prize - if more than 8 entries

Donated by Sharon Bishop

NO WORD VERIFICATION please

Our Creative Team love to leave comments on each and every entry, so please make it easier for them to do so and remove WORD VERIFICATION for your comments. If you choose to use specialist galleries please be aware we may not be able to leave comments for you.

ARTastic is a challenge blog with a difference. We find inspiration in works of art.THE RULES - You don't need to be arty to play along with us - we accept traditional paper, digital, mixed media and off the page creations at any level. International entries are welcome. You may combine with 3 other challenges. Please include our inspirational artwork and a link back to ARTastic on your entry and tell us how you were inspired by our artwork.